*Goats and breeds*

**II**

**Section 3**

**Section 4**

*by Erhan Sulejmani*

of Antimicrobials in Goats *by Saganuwan Alhaji Saganuwan*

Goat Immunity to Helminthes

*and Muhammad Mudasser Nazir*

Goat Cheese Quality in North Macedonia

Cheese Quality **109**

**Chapter 7 111**

Health **133**

**Chapter 8 135**

**Chapter 9 159**

Unique Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Parameters

*by Mohammad Mazhar Ayaz, Ahsan Sattar Sheikh, Mubashar Aziz* 

The goat is one of our earliest domesticated animal species, parts of which were already found in objects from thousands of years ago. Not only was the goat endowed with certain qualities, but the buck was also included in the constellations, so other effects were attributed to it. In Egyptian and Greek culture, the goat had and still has - a special place, which can also be found in cult objects and paintings.

In addition to its meat production, its milk production was also utilized at least 3,500 to 4,000 years before, and excavations in the former Mesopotamian area found, in addition to equipment suitable for milk processing, cheese that was many thousands of years old.

In the *first chapter* of this volume, the author summarizes information on the historical past of the goat, supporting his conclusions and findings with a number of figures.

*Spain* has the second largest goat population in Europe (and the EU) in breeding and production - according to the latest official figures, the size of the population is over 3 million. A large number of local varieties form the basis of the herd, and varieties specializing in both meat and dairy production can be found among them. Detailed descriptions of these can provide the reader with information not only about the past and present of the varieties, but also about their possible future.

In the *second chapter* of the volume, in addition to describing the Spanish varieties, the authors also describe the production systems used in the country.

Spain is also important for goat keeping/breeding because the animals from Spain have become the ancestors of the breeds that form the basis of the current goat population on the American continent. After, or in parallel with, the discovery of America, many goats reached different parts of the continent and became explorers, "pioneers," and helpers for poorer people over the past centuries.

There are already large numbers of goat breeds of different origins in the *United States of America* that have arrived there as a result of import ideas for different purposes. The foundations of the current goat herd have developed over the last 100 years. Meat and dairy herds as well as wool herds can be found in the country, and they even breed all kinds of crossbred offspring. From favourite animals with a few individuals to large-scale, huge farms, goat farms of all sizes can be found in the USA. Varieties have also developed that hardly occur anywhere else in the world. Of these, perhaps the most interesting is the Myotonic goat, whose meat-to-bone ratio (4:1) stands out even among the meat species. The fact that the world's bestknown goat research institute operates in this country, and the goat population has increased dramatically in recent decades, reaching 2.7 million individuals in early 2020, is also an appreciation of the goat.

In the *third chapter* of the volume, the author presents a summary analysis of goat breeds bred and kept in production in the USA.

In the *fourth chapter* of this volume, the reader can get a summary of the goat breeds developed and bred in *Nepal*. The varieties bred there are fundamentally different from those presented in the previous two chapters, although individuals from some of the world's milk and meat varieties have already arrived there.

Nearly 11 million goats are kept in production and breeding in Nepal, and most of them are among the hard Central Asian breeds. Significant genetic differences were also found between the goat breeds kept in each region, and even the authors showed clear differences between the individuals of each breed bred in different regions. In most goat-keeping countries, including Nepal, efforts are being made to improve the milk and meat production of domestic breeds using imported breeds, but breeds that are considered exotic here have also developed in the country. The results of the development based on the applied breeding and selection methods, as well as DNA tests and biotechnological methods are presented in this study.
